As the result of a graphics error (incorrect voting numbers were displayed onscreen) during the performance recap at the end of Wednesday’s show, each of the Top 13 acts will break out their “Save Me” songs on tonight’s episode (airing at 8/7c on Fox), which will now be a second performance installment instead of a results show. Wednesday night’s vote tallies, meanwhile, will go the way of Melanie Amaro’s major-label debut CD.

The results of Thursday’s re-vote will then be revealed at the start of next Wednesday’s X Factor, officially eliminating one act prior to the Top 12 tackling hits from the 1980s.

Perhaps coincidentally, tonight’s X Factor will be going head-to-head with The Voice‘s Live Playoffs results telecast (8/7c on NBC). The cynic inside me wonders if Simon Cowell figured a high-stakes performance telecast (with time-sensitive votes attached) might be a better way to stave off the competition than a results show (which, by its nature, is 59 minutes of fluff, with about 30 seconds of news).

If by some chance the phone-numbers glitch was a deliberate way to generate more buzz for Fox’s struggling singing competition, can you really blame Simon? After all, when X Factor had a rare head-to-head battle against The Voice (for its second hour) last Tuesday, the final ratings tally was lopsided: 11.4 million and a 3.5 demo rating for The Blake Shelton-Adam Levine Bromance Spectacular versus 4.8 million and a 1.5 for The X Factor.

I’d almost feel better if X Factor‘s botched graphics were deliberate: Otherwise, it means nobody’s paying attention to what’s arguably the most important ingredient to the show’s (and frankly, any reality competition series’) success: the integrity of its voting process, and an assurance that its implicit promise that its viewers hold the power is carried out.

Not to pile unfairly onto X Factor, of course, seeing how Dancing With the Stars had its own non-elimination week due to a voting snafu in October. Here’s hoping, however, that we’ve seen the last of such voting irregularities for the current TV season. I mean, surely there are a few good math geeks in need of jobs in this economy. And if there’s not room in the budget for hiring ’em, maybe Simon could skim $10,000 off Paulina’s paycheck every time she messes up a contestant’s name or hometown.

What do you think of The X Factor‘s latest blunder: Simple mistake or shrewd competitive move? And which show will you watch tonight at 8/7c: X Factor or The Voice? Sound off in the comments!

I watch it. Rather like it. Never cared for The Voice which this site keeps promoting. Don’t see the need for the comparisons in an X Factor article. If I wanted to read about the Voice I’d look them up. Anyway, Paulina is quite a worldwide star. I think she could speak Spanish and have subtitles or a mixture. She is in fact very good.

Glee is on. This is a 1 hour do over. It’s going to be a rush job of 13 performances. They are singing their save songs and not the songs last night. So it’s their save song that each contestant practices if they were in the bottom two. I wonder if Selena Gomez will preform tonight?

That’s what ended up happening. It was definitely better. When the mentors had less time to meddle, it was almost always miles above what the acts did Wednesday. I laughed when Simon obviously fed Paulina the line about her one act being sick. She was clearly supposed to bring it up for him to go ‘oh I didn’t want to use it as an excuse’ but she can barely handle what they want from her as it is so she almost screwed her line up and Simon jumped in. Britney made more of a contribution for pete’s sake. How was Cheryl Cole a bad judge? She’s charming, actually mentors, and I can totally understand her accent. I will actually sit through X Factor season 4 if she gets brought back.

Yep! Performances were on Tuesday, then instead of a results show they replayed Tuesday’s performances on Wednesday, then had a special emergency results show on Thursday. But this was in the days when Idol ruled the nation and they could safely pull shenanigans like that. X Factor is in no such position.

Time for a conspiratory theory: Maybe Simon Cowell thought that all fans of country music (who watch The X Factor) would watch the CMAs instead of The X Factor – so they would not vote for Restless Road? Could you imagine the size of the fiasco – his Country boyband – allegedly the next One Direction – in the botton during the first week of voting????

I was thinking the same and also that maybe he knew atleast where I live (I’m in Maryland) that the voice is not on tonight on NBC due to football so more people may tune into X factor who don’t want to watch football

At the end of the day, none of these people (including the winner) will ever be heard from again, so voting integrity is a moot point. However, it’s a decent little tactic to get some publicity for a dying show.

I don’t think so. Plenty of people watch Idol that don’t watch The X Factor. I watched The X Factor’s first season and was so turned off by the spectacle I haven’t watched it since. I still watch Idol every season (for better or for worse).

I watch every season of Idol too though the old themes have been getting to me. I’ve tried to watch x-factor a few times & it just doesn’t engage me. I flipped to it last night but as soon as I saw it was Motown I switched over to CMAs till it was time for American Horror Story.
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I think my dislike of the theme night format is the reason I prefer the Voice. An old song reimagined is great now and then but not entire shows of bad karaoke versions just to get 1 or 2 performances that aren’t awful. I don’t like x-factor for multiple reasons but even Idol will continue its ratings decline if they don’t step back from week after week of shows full of nothing but 40+ year old music that’s already been done to death.
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I’ll be watching The Voice tonight.

I’m thinking Paulina Rubio(the one who can hardly speak English) went to the same school as Obama. He thinks there’s 57 states and she’s thinks there’s a North California AND a SOUTH CALIFORNIA. Guess they did finally split it in half ! For her to say one of the contestants is from Lexington South California(it’s in SC near Columbia) and then nobody even correct it is unforgivable. I only watched about 5 mins. of it and happened to catch this part. The talent is no comparison to The Voice !

Sort of like the Democrat (Pelosi) who tries to promote a health care bill she has never read, Zobma? Pot calling the kettle black much? Have a great day in your obvious, biased, hatred. You poor baby.

Pretty sure you have your analogies mixed up and you meant to say that Paulina Rubio went to the same school as Sarah Palin. After all, President Obama simply misspoke, while Sarah Palin really believed that Africa is a country and that North Korea are our allies, lol!

maybe she did go to the same school he did, maybe not, but one thing is for sure and it’s that you could never even get into the schools Obama went to
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she is nervous and it’s her second language, let me hear you get everything perfect on a live show in Mexico while speaking Spanish and then we’ll talk and Obama probably had like 2 hours of sleep on the campaign when he said that stuff that he clearly knows isn’t the case (not that I think she has been exactly the best judge of the season or anything)

Tonight, I thought Alex and Sierra were in a whole different league then the rest. I’m going to buy that song if I can. This will be a first for me. They’re the only reason I’m still watching this show, and I was a die-hard X Factor supporter from day 1.

What’s wrong with these people. They made another stupid mistake on the redux show. They showed Rion Payge’s intro after Lopez announced Rachel Potter, the one performing. Heads have been chopped off and rolled downhill for less. Stupid! Stupid!

Every single one of these performers sounded much much better on Thursday than the night before. Amazing how well they can do when they choose their own songs even with only 24 hours to prepare rather than spending a week full of meddling from their mentors working on some old Motown stuff that most of them are too young to remember.

These snafu’s didn’t surprise me at all–only that it took so long to become obvious how ill-run and mismanaged this show has been. I’ve mentioned several times, that my s/o auditioned in Greensboro NC, and last spring in NOLA.
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Greensboro was pretty much a mess, but it pales next to the disaster that was NOLA. Thousands of people were in gale force winds on an open sided parking ramp leading to the auditorium. They wouldn’t let us in, though 3-inch deep water was cascading down the ramps, and people were being pelted by rain. Besides the obvious mess of having ones audition clothes ruined, there were some in real physical danger, and the powers that be wouldn’t let us in for a long time.
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The chaotic way they processed people in these initial auditions didn’t happen in a vacuum, but was an indication of the way the entire production was being handled. This surprised me no end because I thought that Cowell et al would have run a tighter ship, seeing that one of his pet projects was on the line.

I think Simon’s two hatchet pals cut Potter because she is the only real star on the show this season. Now the three can put on their average at best contestants and try and pass them off as future stars! Not a chance in —-! Miss Potter should tell the X-Factor to shove it and go on the Voice. That would show Simon and his two pals who the real star is!

I still cannot believe hosts such as Mario Lopez and Ryan Seacrest are being told/forced to wish all the acts good luck right before someone is eliminated. Lopez did it just tonight right after pointing out that someone is about to go home. Obviously they cannot all have good luck, can they? Not possible!